Most towns, and even villages have a sort of square for gathering; for Salt Village, that place was just the north side of the road along the stream. For a group that was allegedly supposed to be teaching Tian Meng, they certainly were keeping to themselves. Pan had gone off to do what he does, and the trio sat in a close circle on the rocks that were to be their pews.

Not as haughty as Door Knob, their pride could still be detected at a glance. The readily apparent better-than-you attitude made me momentarily doubt that they were imposters. Without hard evidence, there was no way to be certain, but the clues led to this conclusion.

“So, Alric, coming from Braan, things must be quite different there. Why don't you tell me a bit about it?” Tyra gave a smile without emotion, gesturing to one of the stones nearby. I wanted to just run my hands through my hair and critique her.

This interest is a little too blatant, you see? You just waltzed in here as Disciples, casually interacting with a mage as soon as you see them is suspicious. Obvious spy is obvious.

Being diplomatic about it, I overlooked such amateurishness and complied. I displayed a to clean the stone before taking a seat. Naught but a minor display of power, but enough to tell them a bit about myself. Though considering what a novice she was, she might not pick up on it.

“It would be a great honor to inform the Disciples of my homeland, but I only come from a minor state near the outskirts of Braan. What is it that you are interested in? There certainly isn't all that much to talk about, it couldn't match the grandiosity of Derriad, with its cities like Glaucen.” Bloviating on for a bit, an image of my ‘homeland’ was being given time to form. Elements of instability, a respect for magic, an emphasis on humility of those with power. At the same time, those with power would naturally ascend, but taking heed of their roots meant it would be a prosperous place. Considering how much Derriad valued sacrifice to higher ups, saying that lacking such a thing caused a lack of unity and discord would make it more believable to them.

“What’s your home like?” Harold looked to the sky to keep his eyes from straying towards me, but Tomas lacked discipline and was visibly biting his lip as he glared. Lowering my own head to ‘think’ about where to start, Tyra surreptitiously met eyes with Tomas, who then composed himself. They might as well just use a stage whisper and let me pretend not to have heard them.

“Other than the academy, I never had much of a home. It is good to settle down and rest up for a few years, but mostly I've been on the move.” I reminisced over a past that never happened. “*Headmaster* always went on about us needing to get out in the world. It wasn't a free pass to get out of our studies, but if you research for too long you start to become a little out of touch. A decade gets buried under all your notes, and when you step out to see the sun, the sky’s different.”

“Mm, it’s always good to have somewhere to go back to. What did the academy teach?”

“For most, magic, but for me it was everything. My father was a professor but…” I trailed off a little, making everything up on the fly. I didn't want my backstory to get too complex, lest I forget bits of it. “Well, he spent a little too much time experimenting. There was this, there was that; the school ended up taking care of me. Living in the academy, I got a decent, if slanted, education. For example, I never knew much at all about Derriad, so I came on over.”

“So you didn't come here to find anything? It was all on a whim? That’s quite the journey for so little reason.” Tyra reacted in surprise, apparently she seemed to be buying the act. At least we were getting out of my fake past and into the actual negotiation phase. I’d already accidentally made myself an orphan, I didn't want to accidentally burn down the whole imaginary academy as well, that would be too tragic. “Surely you must have heard of something here that grabbed your interest, otherwise why would you be so far within the country?”

“No, it’s all just been the way things have turned out. Really, I can’t think of anything that’s really grabbed my attention. That's how I ended up settling down here for a few seasons. No rush to go anywhere.”

Tyra continued beating around the bush, asking about ‘the academy’, about what I thought of Derriad, occasionally asking some materialistic questions. She seemed to be getting more comfortable with the fact I was a mage; but her two cohorts were not, and stayed out of the conversation. Maybe they were playing good cop, bad cop? Or perhaps just making the play more realistic as most Disciples do dislike magic and they were needed to fill out the numbers.

All that speechitating started to wear me down, but Harold unintentionally came to the rescue. Anyone would be fed up after hearing two people jabber on for three days and three nights. At least, that's how long it seemed to take.

“Tyra, I'm sure you've chatted with the mage enough for the day. We still have our duties as Disciples to teach this village. Let us retire from here and continue our planning for tomorrow.”

“You can tell me more later.” Tyra stood up and brushed herself off, and she and her minions departed. When she looked back, her smile had definitely improved; I wondered if it was the work of my deceit, or she just became more used to my presence.

I didn't really care, I was just wishing I knew time magic to make the week go by faster. That was not the case, and not wanting to become too entangled with the villagers in their eyes, I had to form my own entertainment for the evening.

Tossing around spell shapes in my mind, the abilities of each had expanded slightly. Raised INT and WIS did continue to have an effect on my spells, and although small, considering my low stat base, it was a very noticeable difference. The best of all being extended durations for my spells, as I wasn't exactly suited for damage output at the moment. Perhaps if I’d somehow focused my stats on Intelligence, but I didn't know how that could have been done anyhow.

Both Intelligence and Wisdom are important to casters in Underworld. Each affected(almost) every spell cast, but in different proportions. For example, a Wisdom focused caster would have an abundance of mana, and the effects of many duration type spells received better benefits from Wisdom. This made them excellent support casters, and Wisdom also multiclassed well with spiritual casters, whose prime traits were Wisdom and Charisma. Those rare few who tried making ‘pures’ in WIS had insane amounts of mana; naturally such a simpleminded build didn't work very well, and without the care of some friends, they wouldn't be able to grab anything that could make full use of their mana. Beacons still made themselves a bit useful in guilds. Usually they’d join with a friend and spend time socializing while buffing everyone to high heaven.

Bombs, or a pure INT caster, only lagged a small distance behind in terms of mana quantity. At least compared to the runner ups, which only used mana in some cases. Even without multipliers involved, they were at least 10,000 MP behind a similarly leveled Beacon. Fragile, they were still considered a better choice than most other pure stat types. Intelligence primarily boosted offensive spells, and the amount of damage they did. At higher levels, they might be able to be one hit killed by pretty much anything, but they could usually set off at least one attack before having to retreat, hence Bombs. Underworld of Armok had a lot of hidden variables, but INT players seemed to near the top, bringing about a lot of speculation as to what it did.

Continuing my introspection on my abilities, I realized there were gains in both Strength and Endurance. Unlike many games, where you only wanted to pour your efforts into your main class abilities, Underworld of Armok’s roguelike nature encouraged a bit of cautiousness and balance. Pures were powerful and could fight well above their level, but they can't reach the apex. The game was too large, and it takes too long to reach the upper levels to evade any and all of your weaknesses that whole time. Given that in this world there would be no ‘new game’ option, even though Strength and Endurance drained points from my main stats, I was not unhappy. Besides, it wasn't as if they were useless either.

Especially in this new world, Hulks looked to be a very viable option, even if there were no associated abilities. Strength provided a small amount of hitpoints, stamina, and even speed. Mostly though, it just increased physical strength. True STR pures are actually a somewhat rare choice, because with the aid of a good weapon and party buffs, the damage dealt is usually overkill against anything under sub-boss class monsters. Someone with a lot of spare time on their hands figured out the material properties of stuff in the higher level zones, and even with the crazy amounts of zeroes that followed, pure Hulks could smash through it. People who griefed the lower level areas loved the class, they could basically just run through stone walls.

Which comes to my final area of stat improvement upon reaching Level 2, Endurance. Walls, the tankiest of tanks, the most common, and depending on your definition, successful, pure class. Some also called them Adventurers, since due to their large health and stamina, they were excellent at scouting unknown and dangerous areas. Getting about double the Hitpoints per END than per STR, even Bombs had trouble taking them down. On the downside, other than using their similarly abundant Stamina to improve their abilities, there wasn't much they could do. But due to their maddening resilience, they ended up lasting long enough to get some truly good loot, which could pull them into into mid-upper tier.

If used correctly, any pure stat build could be very good, especially when considering the later level boosts. But it’s not enough to reach the apex.

Pures could be called strong, excessively so in their area, but it was their only card. Top tier players could react to any situation with excellence. Be it solo, a party, or a guild, no matter who came at a top tier player or what style they used, the true apex of Underworld of Armok could not be undermined. Being at the top didn't rely on your Character, but your character.

A niche group of a few billion resided in the apocalyptic hellscape for a few hours each day, every one fighting against the unfair and overly powerful monsters. Die again and again, and be tempered. Even with all the hours we have to spend in our lives, who spends them over and over on such a game? Who are the ones that remain to climb to the top? The pain settings in Underworld of Armok are not optional, nor are they set to minimal levels.

I never surpassed Cacame’s level, but the title ascended into the ranks of top players. Statwise, I couldn't compete with the other top players, but that didn't stop my mark being left across the monuments to their achievements.

The Poran? Just a mob of low levels; it would be pointless to hack them to bits. I just had to remain steadfast through the tedium. For the time being, I would just plot out my future course of action.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Uh, I don't know how I forgot about all the other characters. I guess I'll do more polls when I finish each arc/set of characters.

Also y'all should makes me a tv tropes page. It is dishonorable to make your own.

And if you didn't read the last three titles to the tune of Zoboomafoo, what is wrong with you.